16 Chapter 15 (2/2)
This whole vent turned better than I expected. Honestly, the moment I saw Mihawk, I thought we were all dead, luckily we survived and Zoro even had gained a lot from that fight, despite losing two swords.
Don Krieg, on the other hand, was surprisingly weak. With the tough fights with Buggy and Kuro, I thought he will have a Logia fruit or something like that, but Zoro had easily handled him and his crew. Unfortunately, I had not seen Gin at all, I was thinking of maybe inviting him to the crew, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
I wanted to let Zoro sleep on the bed in the Captains Room, however, Nami kept refusing by saying Aisha hasn't recovered yet. I'm pretty sure that is just an excuse to continue using the room with her.
The past three days Nami was the only one that white-haired girl shared more than, what she told me the first time we talked. After that, she spoke no more than a few more words with the man on the crew.
From what Nami learned she was from a rich family named Jolderik, in the Asena Kingdom. The family is known for the great hunters they have produced in the kingdom and that the family members have jet black hair.
The kingdom is located on Amarok Island. The symbol of the kingdom is a wolf and that the animal is considered sacred there. Almost every family there owns a wolf. For a tradition, the citizens of the kingdom hunt a fox at the end of each month and offer it as a sacrifice to their wolf. Those who present special foxes are believed to have better luck for the following month.
A week ago, Aisha was gifted a fruit from a family that always was on good terms with hers. After eating a bit and tasting how horrible it is, she didn't eat any further, but the deed was already done. Her hair turned white and she suddenly felt some weird power in her gut. Aisha instinctively transformed into an animal, a fox to be exact.
Some of the servants that were around her at that time of her transformation, though that she is the most special fox someone can sacrifice and went to inform the elders of the situation. A few others stayed to make sure she doesn't escape and the rest stayed to protect her. None believed her that the fruit is the cause of her transformation since they tested and nothing happened to the other people who ate it.
She was somehow able to escape with a few of the remaining servants, but her family had offered a five million Berri bounty for her head. Having nowhere to go in the kingdom, they managed to get a caravel and escape to sea. Unfortunately, the marines had caught them and the rest we all witnessed.
Since Aisha had opened up to Nami, they had started sharing the room together since the bed is pretty big. At the very least she looks better and I am pretty sure she had recovered already.
Zoro didn't care if he sleeps on a bed or on the floor and simply got laid on a hammock and fell asleep instantly.
Nami was excited she had enough money for her village and wanted to leave immediately to go there.
I really wanted to get Sanji for the crew, however, no matter how many times I asked him he always refused. Zeff brought him to train with us for the last two days, but he kept denying my requests. I tried, but I don't want to stay here forever, despite the improvements, thanks to the training from Zeff.
When I went to find Zeff and told him that I would be leaving today, he smirked at me and said: ”So you are leaving without upholding your deal. ”
”I tried and you saw, he doesn't want to leave this place, so won't force him to do it.” I even promised him that we will see mermaids on our adventure and that didn't work.
We started talking about a few random things and I asked to buy some meat and vegetables from him. He agreed but said he will charge me more since I didn't convince Sanji to leave. I couldn't do much about that and I don't want to starve on the sea, so I had to agree.
After we stocked the food and gave him the money, we were saying our goodbyes. Zeff and a few cooks that we got closer throughout our stay here, were there saying how they will miss us.
Before we left, I saw Sanji coming with a backpack and two sacks. He said he will join the crew and that he had already decided that the day we spoke.
Sanji apparently went to talk with Zeff later that day and told him he is considering joining me. Zeff even encouraged him to do it and to follow his dream. He also told him that he should join us only right before we are leaving and to refuse me every time I ask him before that, in order to rip me off before I leave. The old bastard was laughing the whole time when Sanji told us that.
No one from the crew was against him joining since they all liked his cooking and though he is a nice guy. Considering he was also tortured by Zeff with us, we had already created a small bond just with that.
I didn't really know what to do with Aisha, as she didn't want to be left on the Baratie and she didn't want to join my crew when I asked her. Apparently, she has told Nami, she would like to stay with us for a bit and decide what she wants to do later.
With that, we were on way towards Cocoyasi Village and I already have six crew members, yet I still need more, due to the size of this ship. I wonder if Aisha would join us and if there would be anyone else who would join us before going to the Grand Line.